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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985385">In The Mind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes'>Skullszeyes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marble Hornets, The Evil Within (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Jay Merrick, Betrayal, Blood, Blood and Torture, Brian Thomas | Hoody Lives, Canon-Typical Violence, Confusion, Crossover, Enemy Lovers, F/M, Found Footage, Friendship, Horror, Jay Merrick is Skully, Kidnapping, Loss of Control, M/M, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Memory Loss, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Murder, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Partner Betrayal, Partners in Crime, Partners to Lovers, Protective Jay, Repressed Memories, Romance, Slash, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Swearing, Tags May Change, the operator makes an appearance but not in the way that you think</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:47:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985385</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jay &amp; his friends wake up in an unfamiliar place, but things are not what they seem, and it becomes increasingly worse as they traverse through it, trying to remember how they got there, and who is actually controlling who.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Kralie/Amy Walters, Brian/Timothy "Tim" W., Hoody &amp; Masky, Jessica Locke &amp; Jay Merrick, Ruben "Ruvik" Victoriano &amp; Leslie Withers, Sebastian Castellanos &amp; Joseph Oda, Sebastian Castellanos/Myra Hanson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. JAY</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this quickly...so, hopefully it's okay. :) I wanted to write this for a few days now, but I wasn't sure how, and someone said...just write your shitty art, and I was like, "Okay!" :D I mean, it's not shitty, and I really like it. So, I hope you enjoy it too!</p><p>I'll add more tags later, it's late, and I need to sleep.</p><p>Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had a hard time turning it on when his own vision was blurred. He fumbled, breath coming out shaky, then it was on, the battery so low that he was only slightly worried. He got up off the bed and made his way across the messy dim room, chilly when he woke up, fingers numb, clothes stiff for however long he had been lying on the creaky hospital bed. It was so old, he wasn’t sure how he got to this place.</p><p>He walked over to a girl lying on a similar bed across the room from him. He noticed her briefly when he woke up, and then recognized her. The camera wasn’t his priority at the time when he had sat up, but it was on his list when he noticed it lying on the floor a few feet from the bed. There was a tape inside, used, and possibly useful once he rewinds it, but right now, he had to wake up Jessica.</p><p>“Hey,” he said, nudging the girl on the shoulder. She was as cold as he is, wearing a black thin sweater, her long brown hair looked stiff, and her lips were chapped from the cold air inside the circular spacious room. He trembled as he nudged her a few more times. “Jessica...Jessica, wake up.”</p><p>How did they get here? He didn’t recognize this place, and the worse thing about this, is that he had no memory of how he got here, or what happened before. He didn’t remember talking to Jessica. The last time he saw her was months ago, but here she was, lying unconscious on a squeaky bed in some unknown room.</p><p>“Jessica,” he said, then gritted his teeth at the red beeping light on the camcorder. Shit. It was dying. He needed to find out what happened to them, or in hopes he had videotaped what happened beforehand, if not...then Jessica will have to wake up and help him figure that out.</p><p>Before the camcorder could die, he sat beside her, stopping the already playing tape, and rewinded it to the start. The camera kept coming in and out, but his voice was clear on the other end.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em> “It’ll be fun,” he said, the camera pointed at Jessica who arched a brow at him, as if she didn’t believe him. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I’m sure it will, but it’s sketchy, and from what—” Jessica turned as the camera glitched, then came back. “Let’s hope this isn’t bullshit. I don’t want to waste my time.” </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>The video went out, and before he could continue the tape, Jessica’s eyes were fluttering open, and she squinted at him, then realized the cold, including where she was.</p><p>“Jay!” she said, pushing herself up and moving away from her, but seemed confused about the bed as much as he was when he had awakened. “Where am I? What happened?”</p><p>He swallowed thickly at the questions as Jessica looked around the room, and he could see she had no memory of where they were either. That, in itself, was troubling. “I don’t know,” he told her, unable to hold back the trembling in his voice. “All I have is this camcorder...but it’s dying, if we don’t find a battery or something, we won’t figure how we got here.”</p><p>“How is a camcorder going to—”</p><p>“You’re in the camcorder with me,” he said, cutting her off.</p><p>Jessica looked away from him, seeking out something familiar, but all there was is confusion. Lost. Only a white dirty floor, a dim blue light casted over them, a cold air burning their throats and leaving them numb. Old hospital equipment that didn’t look as if it was touched in decades, including old blue dividers, squeaky hospital beds. And a memory, blocked by something, and only found within a dying camcorder. Shit. This was bad, so incredibly bad.</p><p>“Do you know this place?” he asked.</p><p>Jessica swallowed, then shook her head. “No. I don’t…”she let out a sigh and patted down her sweater pockets, her brows knitted together as she reached into her left pocket and pulled out two tapes. “What the...are these yours?” she asked.</p><p>He peered closer, then knew right away they fit the camcorder he was holding. “They can help, but this thing won’t last long.” We have to find batteries, if not, they’ll be wandering around with no idea how they got here.</p><p>She nodded. “Maybe...we can find something around here if we look.” She slipped her legs off the bed and stood. She was a little wobbly, and he helped her gather her wits before he headed toward one of the two doors that sat on either side of the room. Double doors, heavy, and when he pushed against one of them, it was locked from the other side.</p><p>“Shit,” he said under his breath, glancing over to Jessica who meandered toward the other one. He really hoped it wasn’t locked, and sighed in relief when the door opened with little resistance.</p><p>“Come on,” she said, and he hurried after her through the door and into a long hall. There was an odd mildew smell in the air, as if the floors haven’t been washed in a long time, while the walls were yellow, and the light was a faded white.</p><p>“You have no memory?” Jessica asked.</p><p>He shook his head. “Nothing. I woke up in the same room, and the camcorder was a few feet away from me on the floor.”</p><p>She nodded slowly, then looked down at the tapes she was holding. “I wonder what these have on them, if they have anything.”</p><p>“I’m sure they do.” Well, he didn’t know, but he really hoped they did. They needed answers, and from what he saw on the camcorder, he had been holding it, and maybe he had taped everything before they ended up in the room.</p><p>“Is it dead?” she asked.</p><p>He turned it back on to check, then shook his head. “It will soon, but not yet.”</p><p>“Maybe we should watch some of what’s on the tape before it dies,” she said, and they stopped in the hall before walking toward another set of double doors at the end. Right before he was going to press start, they went still at an eerie sound coming from the room they had just left.</p><p>“What is that?” he asked as they both looked to the closed doors.</p><p>“I don’t know,” she whispered.</p><p>Singing. A woman...was singing. It was slightly off key, and sounded melancholy.</p><p>“We should check it out,” he said, then passed her the camcorder, but she was shaking her head and they walked toward the doors. There were two round windows that allowed them to peer into the room, and for a second, he thought they wouldn’t see anything. Then Jessica grabbed his arm tightly, her breath on the window, her eyes wide, and he knew what she was looking at.</p><p>There was a mirror on one side of the room near an old faded divider. It had blocked him from seeing it when he woke up, but from this angle, he can see it completely, and what was within the mirror itself. He was shaking at the sight of a disheveled woman. Her hair was long and black, flowing as if she were underwater, including ripped clothing that was wrapped around her pale body.</p><p>She wasn’t on this side of the mirror, he checked the room itself before turning his eyes on the woman, and shook at the sight of her flowing through the mirror as if it were nothing.</p><p>“What the fuck is that?” Jessica asked him.</p><p>He didn’t know. He didn’t want to know, and yet he was rooted to the floor, shaking, unable to look away at the woman’s voice that was now louder as she flowed through the room. She didn’t even touch the floor. What was she, a ghost?</p><p>“We should leave,” Jessica said, her fingers tightening on his arm. “Jay. We have to leave...we have to go!”</p><p>She screamed, and his ears rang, and his heart was almost ready to burst with anxiety as the woman noticed them, and they were running down the corridor as the doors were ripped open by the woman’s scream.</p><p>Jessica was still gripping his arm as they pushed open the doors at the end and entered another room. It looked so different from the room they came from, more like a kitchen of some kind, or maybe part of a facility that had been cleared out. They ran toward another door, then Jessica pointed to a narrow hall leading to a door with a keypad beside it, unfortunately the light on the keypad was red.</p><p>Shit. What were they going to do? It seemed likely they’d have to get through that door, but it’s not like they had a keypad, and the woman’s singing returned, and she phased through the door.</p><p>“This way,” Jessica whispered, pulling Jay through a door and into a small hall that led to two directions. They checked the rooms and found they were similar to the one they had come from, two beds in each room, a desk, including a ripped divider, papers laid on the floors at their feet. And Jay spotted a hole in the wall that led into the second room.</p><p>“How are we going to get through that door?” he asked her, keeping his voice low in case the woman heard them.</p><p>Jessica gestured to the room, and they walked inside, closing the door softly behind them. She let out a breath, and pointed at the camcorder in his hand. “Before it dies, let’s check out the rest of the tape.”</p><p>He nodded, standing beside her as he turned the camcorder on, swallowing thickly at the blinking light as he pressed play. He made sure the volume was low as they watched the tape.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em> “Do you think we’re allowed into the building?” Jessica asked. She had shown up first in the next part of the tape, and Jessica standing beside him stared intensely at her in the tape. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I got permission that we could.” </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Jay gaped at the sight of one of his friends entering the frame. “Alex? What the hell is he doing there?”</p><p>“It looks like we were trying to tape something…” Jessica said.</p><p>“But what?” Jay asked. He was trying to think of what they were doing beforehand, but he couldn’t remember anything.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em> “Come on,” Alex said, leading them down a long dirt road toward a tall iron wrought gate. “No one has lived here for years, but thanks to some people who own the building after the owner...killed himself, we’re allowed to enter the premises for about...two hours.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “That’s all you got?” Jay asked. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Alex shrugged. “Might as well make it work, right.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Where’s Brian and Tim, I thought they were going to be on this,” said Jay. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “They’re there,” Alex said. </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>“Brian and Tim?” Jessica whispered. “What the hell were we doing?”</p><p>He had no idea. If only he could remember, and if Alex, Brian, and Tim are there, then...what does that mean, exactly? Are they here in this building?</p><p>“It doesn’t look like we’re even in that house,” Jessica whispered, her voice shaky.</p><p>Jay nodded. The tape showed them walking to the gate, Alex unlocking it with a key he had received from the people who now owned the building. And when they walked through the open gate, there was a tall dark estate, all the windows were covered in curtains, and there was a decrepit fountain in the center. The road was overgrown, even the hedges on the sides, and the grass needed to be tended too.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em> “Damn. Out of all the places you found, Alex,” Jay said, sounding impressed. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Alex chuckled as he turned around and faced them. “I know. I didn’t think I could get the approval, but apparently, a few needed arrangements helped that along.” A glitch happened, but it was quick, and went over Alex’s face. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “What is that supposed to mean?” Jessica asked. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Alex smiled at her. “Oh, nothing you need to know about. These people are...too organized for our liking. Thankfully, I managed, and here we are. Two hours for our brief excursion. Brian and Tim should be inside, scouting out the place, looking for good sets for us to use.” </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Jay cursed when the camera died on them. “Set?” he whispered, shaking his head. “Alex’s fucking project.”</p><p>“Marble Hornets?” Jessica inquired.</p><p>He nodded. “He gave it up about seven months ago, I don’t know why we were trying to film new scenes.” Was Alex in this place? Or was this some kind of sick joke for his film? He didn’t know, but right now, they have to find a way out of this area, and it seemed their time standing in the dark corner was up. The singing was so close, that it made Jay and Jessica jump.</p><p>Jessica once again grabbed his arm and pulled him across the room toward the hole in the wall. It was small, but they were able to crawl through it as the woman entered the room. Jay shivered, then Jessica gasped, going still before reaching for something on the desk.</p><p>“Jay,” she said, turning around and showing him a white and red keycard, previously used yet abandoned in this place. There was a name on the front, MOBIUS, including a picture of a man with bandages covering his face, including his name on the front.</p><p>“Ruben Victoriano?” Jay said, confused, spotting a picture of a family sitting in a broken frame, one side of it was burned. “I don’t know who that is?”</p><p>“I don’t either,” she said, “but I’m pretty sure this thing can help us get through that door.”</p><p>Door. Right, the one in the other room. Jay followed Jessica to the door that led out into the small hall. They were quiet as Jessica opened the door and peeked out. The singing was more apparent, but Jessica was steady as they waited, then gestured for Jay to follow her. He closed the door quietly behind him, and was right behind her as they walked to the door that led into the empty facility room.</p><p>The singing returned, louder, and it seemed the woman spotted them and let out a terrible shriek.</p><p>Jay gasped, stepping out of the doors way as it swung open and flew off its hinges.</p><p>“Jay!” Jessica called, she was at the door with the keycard, swiping it across, and the red light switched out to green. She pulled the door open as Jay sprinted toward her, and crossed the threshold as the woman turned toward them. The corridor they entered was blinding white, cleaner than the rooms they had come from, and they didn’t stop running from the singing woman. </p><p>Jessica clutching the keycard, and Jay holding the dead camcorder, both with no memory, and no idea where they were, but with enough determination to find a way out, and possibly their friends that were mentioned in the tape.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There are other pov's with MH, and the Evil Within characters. And yes, I figured some stuff out, so let's hope it works out!  <i>(Not edited, so my bad.)</i></p><p>More will come sooner or later. :D</p><p>Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. SEBASTIAN</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sebastian wakes up in an odd room and finds a strange woman.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry for the haitus on this story. :/ I was busy with other wips, and my life keeps taking weird turns. LOL. I'm also kind of just burned out. I'll try to update more if I have time.</p><p>I hope you enjoy.</p><p>Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sebastian woke up with a start, a hand pressed to his chest where his heart was thudding against his ribcage. He glanced around, then his fingers went to his holster, but he didn’t have his gun with him. He swore under his breath and surveyed the room. Grey slick walls, hard cold floor, a sink to the side with a mirror above it, a desk to his right with some kind of document sitting on top of it, with a wide metal door that seemed to be the only other exit out.</p><p>He sat up, rubbing his eyes. No. This can’t be right. He’s not in some hospital, is he? He went to Beacon Mental Hospital to pursue a call with Kidman and Joseph, so they should be here with him. Shouldn’t they be here with him? He let out a breath and stood from the bed.</p><p>He lost something. That’s the first thing he notes as he stood up, almost falling over thanks to a bit of vertigo, but…there’s voices flowing inside his head, a conversation he had a long time ago. He shakes his head, trying to steady out his breathing before walking toward the door. He pressed his hands against it. The cold metal is real enough that he knows he isn’t dreaming, but where is he? This isn’t Beacon.</p><p>“Hello?” he called. He blinks a few times, trying to rid the colors fading to green to grey that’s happening on the wall. He almost sees large insects running up and down, a few falling from the ceiling. That isn’t right. There’s an odd smell in the air as well, something stagnant or akin to rusting metal.</p><p>There’s another room across from him that is similar to his own. Right before Sebastian could peek at the others, a woman stepped into his view, and stared at him with a blank expression. She’s a brunette with pale skin, round glasses, with a white nurse’s hat on the top of her head.</p><p>“Are we awake?” she asks in an almost friendly, yet deadpan tone. She looked at several keys attached to a red cord that resembles the red dress that she’s currently wearing, and unlocks the door to the room, then she opens it.</p><p>“Where am I?” he asks her, trying to remain calm in this increasingly odd situation. He had never been hospitalized before, yet his memories from how he had gotten here are all blurry.</p><p>“I’m afraid I cannot answer that,” she said, keeping eye contact with him before leading him away from the other rooms and toward the nurse’s station. She walks around the desk, then places a hand down on a clipboard. “This place is necessary for you. You are always welcome here. Please, sign in here.”</p><p>Sebastian stared at the paper and read the names written in the small boxes. He furrowed his brows as he reached for the black pen sitting beside the clipboard. A few of the names weren’t familiar except for two.</p><p>“Jos—”</p><p>“Please, sign in,” she said. “Without signing in, there is no way to ensure future memories.”</p><p>He had no idea what that was supposed to mean as he quickly wrote his name on the page, then set down the pen. The moment he finished, he heard screaming from the hall he had come from.</p><p>“Let me!” a woman screamed. “I’m not crazy! Let me out! Let me out!”</p><p>“Run...run...run...run…” another voice, a boy, his voice soft and repetitive.</p><p>The last of the noise was someone simply hitting the door as if it were going to open.</p><p>“Are they supposed to be here...like me?” Sebastian asked, narrowing his eyes at the nurse.</p><p>The woman nodded simply. “It is confidential,” she said, walking around the desk and standing beside Sebastian, “but one has replaced another who was recently let out.”</p><p>“Recently?” Sebastian blinked, almost intrigued by this. “Was it Joseph or Kidman?” From what he knew about his partners, Kidman may be strict and proficient, and Joseph had depressive episodes that bothered him for several weeks, but it wasn’t like they were ever admitted into the hospital. Maybe Joseph came to Beacon for a few nights. </p><p>That can’t be right either. Joseph was with him and Kidman in the police car. They were on their way to…</p><p>“Unfortunately, two left their own rooms as well, so right now, there are five patients currently missing,” she spoke, peering up at Sebastian. “Would you do me a favor, detective, and look for them?”</p><p>“You want me to bring them back?” he asked, unsure.</p><p>She sighed. “Not all of them will want to come back,” she then walked across the room to a door he hadn’t noticed. “Right now, there are three here who are incredibly exceptional from the others.”</p><p>He glanced toward the hall again and the screaming, repetitive words, and the loud banging seized completely. Were they asleep or did they get tired of fighting?</p><p>“If you come across one or two of them, they will come back willingly if you tell them who is here,” she said, opening the door, a small smile pulled at the corner of her lips.</p><p>“And the last one?” he asked, walking over to the door that led into a dark hall.</p><p>The woman chuckled. “The last is meant to be here.”</p><p>What was that supposed to mean? His memories were too empty, lost, he didn’t know what he was supposed to remember, or where he was supposed to go. Or how he was supposed to get out of here.</p><p>“What happens when I find one and they...don’t want to come back?” he asks her. He had fought against criminals on the streets before, so it wasn’t like he was scared of coming across others who didn’t want to listen to the nurses here. He just wanted to be careful of who he would come across.</p><p>“The ones you find who are close to them,” she gestured to the hall where the patients who were locked in the rooms, and said, “they will come back without a fight.”</p><p>This all seemed unusually cryptic and strange. “I need to find Joseph and Kidman.” What happened to them? And why aren’t they here with me?</p><p>“You’ll find them out there, but they will also be resistant.”</p><p>Why would they be? “Do you know what is going on?” he asked before he was about to leave.</p><p>“Please, call me Tatiana, it is the only thing I could truly keep here,” she said, then she started walking back toward the desk.</p><p>Sebastian had no idea what to say to that before turning away from the screaming that began again, and walked through the threshold.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. JAY</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Jay &amp; Jessica find answers, but more questions.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The chapters with Jay and Jessica will probably be longer than TEW characters. Depends, tbh. </p><p>Anyway, I hope you enjoy.</p><p>Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A rumbling stopped Jay and Jessica who were running from the singing, floating woman. Jessica grabbed a hold of Jay who was having his own balancing issues. When the rumbling eventually stopped and the long blinding white corridor quieted.</p><p>“What was that?” Jessica asked.</p><p>Jay swallowed thickly, he peered up at the white ceiling. “I don’t know, but it felt like it was coming from all around us.” Maybe some kind of shift, but he wasn’t sure.</p><p>“It felt...familiar,” Jessica said, glancing around them before her eyes fell upon Jay. “I don’t know where I felt it before.”</p><p>Jay has never felt the rumbling before. He frowned at the dead camcorder in his hand, thinking solely on what was on the tapes. Where were batteries in the batteries in this place? What happened after they went to the house? Where were Tim, Alex, and Brian?</p><p>“Do you think they’re here too?” Jay asked, not really sure if he wanted to confess that he felt scared about their situation. From the looks of their current surroundings, they were in some kind of facility. Except, he had no memory of going anywhere else besides staying at his own house. How far did the memories fade once he had awoken up, and what could’ve erased his memories in the first place?</p><p>“I don’t know, right now, I think we have to help ourselves,” said Jessica, dropping her hands to her sides.</p><p>Jay nodded, then went still at the sight of a girl standing at the end of the hall in front of two metal double doors. She stared right back at him, then quickly twisted around, opened the door, and disappeared past them.</p><p>“Wait!” Jay called out.</p><p>“Did you see someone?” Jessica asked as she raced after Jay who was sprinting toward the doors.</p><p>“Some blonde girl,” Jay panted. He reached for the door, yanked it open, and they both stepped past the threshold. Once inside the next room, one of the white lights above flickered as they stood in another wide room.</p><p>“A blonde girl?” Jessica asked, peering around the room as they wandered more inside the room. It was another area of the facility, some kind of laboratory with machines placed against the walls, including a few large slides with a paper diagram on the front that looked like baths of some kind. </p><p>“I saw her,” Jay said under his breath, his shoulders slumping as they found the room was now empty. She wore a blue dress and black shoes. She, like them, didn’t seem to fit in with the environment. Did she know what was going on around here, and if she did, why run?</p><p>Jessica sighed, leaning against one of the machines that didn’t budge with her weight. He now noticed the bags underneath her eyes, the shadows made her face seem sunken in. When was the last time she ate or slept? Did he look like that? Is that why he was a little sluggish?</p><p>“Jay…”</p><p>He hummed in response as he looked around a few other machines, hoping to find the girl. Did she leave the room? There was another set of double doors at the end, maybe she escaped through them the moment they walked into this room.</p><p>“Do you notice that no one is here.”</p><p>Jay blinked, then glanced around, he even touched the edges of a counter, then a machine. There was no dust on any of it the equipment, nothing floating around the rooms. There wasn’t even any kind of sound besides their breathing, and the taps of their shoes whenever they moved.</p><p>He looked back at Jessica, then glanced toward a counter closer to the doors they walked by when they first entered the room, too preoccupied with looking for the strange girl. He hadn’t noticed it until now as he stepped past Jessica.</p><p>“I don’t know where we are,” he said, picking up the objects as he twisted around, “but I think we can watch the rest of the tapes with these.” He showed her the batteries that were left on the counter.</p><p>“If they even work,” Jessica said with a displeased frown.</p><p>He took out the batteries from the camcorder and dropped in the ones that were left on the counter.</p><p>“This is the one we haven’t looked at, right?” Jessica asked.</p><p>Jay nodded. “Yep. Let’s see how we got here.” He turned the camcorder on, went to the settings, then played the tape. It had footage on it which made him sigh in relief as he and Jessica watched the tape.</p><p>From what they could see, it was slowly panning over another room like the one they were in. All white floors and walls, but there were wide windows showing the outside, except the grey clouds hardly gave off much of an impression. Then there was a faint sound before it began to grow in a matter of seconds.</p><p>The camera slowly returned to the room, toward these strange tubs, and beside it was some kind of interface. There were wires all of over the place, but the most disconcerting thing about this was the stark red blood on the white floor. Including three people inside the room. Two were unconscious on the floor, while another with short black hair and wearing leather gloves, was coughing raggedly as he held himself up on his hands and knees.</p><p>“He’s coughing up blood…” Jessica whispered.</p><p>Jay slowly nodded, watching the events as it seemed to be extremely familiar. The video glitched, which shocked them, but the next parts of the tape showed these three people lying in the tubs, while a group of men and women in black suits, including a doctor in a white lab coat, and a few others in white hazmat suits were crowding the room.</p><p>There were gurneys being pushed into the room with people lying on top of them. The people in hazmat suits were looking over their status’s before being placed into the tubs.</p><p>“Jay,” Jessica breathed unsteadily beside him, “that’s us…”</p><p>He had no idea how they got to the point that they were being placed into the tubs by these people. He didn’t even know who these people actually were to begin with. Why were they in these tubs and being hooked up by their veins.</p><p>Jay placed a finger against the inside of his arm, but he couldn’t feel any wound or bump that allowed these people to do this to him. Wouldn’t they have to sign some kind of contract to allow this? Or did these people even care in the first place of what they were doing to them?</p><p>“There’s Tim and Brian,” said Jessica.</p><p>“Alex,” Jay said, watching as the three gurneys stopped before three individual tubs, then they were lifted from the gurneys, placed into the tubs, and connected to the interface.</p><p>“I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” Jessica said.</p><p>The camera moved closer to their unconscious bodies, then passed over the three people he didn’t recognize, but from their clothes, it seemed they were...police officers, or at least some kind of detectives of the city. He couldn’t see their badges or anything though, so maybe he was wrong. When it passed them, Jay quickly stopped the video and pointed at the next person lying in the tub.</p><p>“That’s her,” he said.</p><p>The girl he had seen not too long ago. She was lying in the tub like the rest of them, and seemed to be submerged. She also seemed to be about a teenager, or maybe eighteen to nineteen years old. The camera moved past her and toward the last one situated in the bath.</p><p>“I don’t recognize him either,” Jessica said as the camera moved away from the baths and was placed down on the table. The person holding the camera moved out frame while the tape came to a stop when the light in the center of the machine that connected to the tubs they were all lying in, began to glow into a bright light. The tape ended with that.</p><p>Jay sighed. “That doesn’t really explain much.”</p><p>“What were they doing to us?” she asked, leaning against the counter. “Where are we? Where are those people? From the looks of it...they were using some kind of machine on us, maybe to erase our memories from how we got here.”</p><p>“And if we’re here...then the others should be too.”</p><p>“Or at least a phone,” said Jessica.</p><p>“After they...took us out of those tub looking things, they just...dumped us in a room?” Jay asked, confused about the details. “Where are the others? Including the other people. This seems all...random to pick us, three detective looking people, a guy in hospital clothes, and some girl. It just...doesn’t seem right.”</p><p>“Maybe if we look for that girl, we can ask her about all of this.”</p><p>Jay nodded slowly, following Jessica across the room before coming to a stop before one of the large slides with the diagram taped to it. He raised his eyes, brows furrowed as he read the name on the top.</p><p>“Jessica,” he said, stepping closer to the diagram, “I think those tubs were called a Terminus.” The diagram was of the tub, including all the facets that came with it, and how it worked.</p><p>Jessica came back over to him, arching her brows as she read some of the words on the side. “An electrical induced coma?”</p><p>Jay’s heart raced a bit too heavy in his chest. “They put us all in a coma together? Why?”</p><p>Jessica stepped over to the other diagram. This didn’t consist of the tub-like Terminus, but seemed to show an outline of a person, including their brain.</p><p>“Central Core processor,” Jessica read, “from what this says...the Terminus’, including the subjects, are connected to the Core that is...a biologically living component.”</p><p>Jay didn’t like that in the least as he stood beside Jessica. “We’re connected to a person’s brain?”</p><p>“A prototype,” Jessica said, pressing her finger underneath the word that was written in neat black pen. “We were connected to a prototype, if we can find some files, maybe we’ll be able to learn more about what happened and what they were doing to us.”</p><p>Jay sighed. “So, right now, all we do know is that we’re forced test subjects of some kind of organization.”</p><p>Jessica nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s what we know at the moment.” She looked around the room as she said, “This facility must be theirs.”</p><p>“Why is it empty?”</p><p>“If we look around more, maybe we’ll find the answer to that too.”</p><p>Jay frowned as he looked to the doors they came from. “What was that thing we saw back there?”</p><p>Jessica sighed this time. “I don’t know. I really...don’t know what is going on.”</p><p>All of this was too confusing, and to make matters worse, Jay looked across the room toward the end, and spotted the girl again.</p><p>“Hey! It’s okay, we just want to know what’s going on.”</p><p>“You already know,” the girl answered, then she tossed something in the air, twisted around, and disappeared through the doors.</p><p>Jay was about to run after her while Jessica caught what was falling through the air.</p><p>“A flashlight?” she asked.</p><p>Then the room they were standing in went completely dark.</p>
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